Thrillville (PS2, PSP, X-Box)

Reviewed by Kit

So, as always, I'm not in the mood for a long introduction. Let's see what this week brings us.

Story: You eccentric genius uncle has decided to leave the running of his theme park in your hands while he goes into a small little shed and invents things. Not a bad story, more than is needed certainly, but it's nothing great either. 3/5

Audio: The background music is some punk/rock stylings that might actually be famous songs, but if they are I didn't recognize them. They fit the mood that the game seems to be going for, which is, we're cool and hip and everyone should love us. 3/5

Graphics: The graphics are pretty good. Not compeltely realistic but everyone looks like a person with distinguishing features. Riding the rides is neat looking too. 4/5

Gameplay: As the manager of a theme park you have five important tasks. First you must invest in ride development. You must also talk to the customers to learn opinions, train the staff, and palce and test the rides as they become available. You are limited to a power bar which means that you must have power to make all the rides work, and you cannot place any rides that would put you on a negative power gauge. At the beginnings of the game you are allowed to design what your character will look like, from age to clothing to colors. Once in the park you walk around as your charactertalking to people and performing your duties. Each of the five categories of duties has challenges to become available. By completing these challenges you are able to earn money to improve your park. The gameplay is fairly simple, but it's not terribly exciting. 3/5

Replay: As the game is open-ended already, I doubt there is much need to replay it at all. 1/5

Overall: Overall, it's not a bad game, but I think it could be better. What annoyed me most about the game was it's seeming need to be cool. Where it could have been a fun sim game that allowed console players to make a themepark, it turned into something that was not terribly thought provoking and allowed console players to walk around talking to customers and riding rides. It's not bad, but it could have tried a little harder to not be just a little mindless. 3/5